Wireless networks are telecommunications networks that use both wire and radio waves to carry information from one node in the network to a one or more receiving nodes in the network. Cellular telephony is characterized by the use of radio cells that provide radio coverage for a set geographic area, with multiple cells arranged to provide contiguous radio coverage. The first generation of wireless telephone technology were analog mobile phones and a couple of technologies were used to provide this first generation (1G) wireless service. As technology progressed a second generation (2G) of wireless service was introduced. The main difference between 1G systems and 2G systems were that radio signals in 1G networks were primarily analog, while 2G networks were digital. Second generation technologies were primarily based into time division multiplexed access (TDMA) and code division multiplexed access (CDMA). Networks that were upgraded to handle higher-speed data transfer are referred to as 2.5G and 3G networks. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) respectively developed GSM/UMTS and cdmaOne/CDMA2000 technologies. The next evolution is 4G technology, which appears to be a version of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) that is based on long term evolution-system architecture evolution (LTE-SAE).
At the same time, other wireless access technologies have also developed such as wireless LAN (WiFi), which covers various IEEE 802.11 protocols, WiMAX, which covers IEEE 802.16, and HiperMAN, which is based on an ETSI alternative to IEEE 802.16. These other wireless access technologies are packet based wireless communication technologies developed for delivering packet based content over radio waves. Wireless communication technologies are used in connection with many applications, including, for example, satellite communications systems, portable digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and mobile devices (e.g., cellular telephones, user equipment). One significant benefit that users of such applications obtain is the ability to connect to a network (e.g., the Internet) as long as the user is within range of such a wireless communication technology.
Current wireless communication systems use either, or a combination of, circuit switching and packet switching in order to provide mobile data services to mobile devices. Generally speaking, with circuit-based approaches, wireless data is carried by a dedicated (and uninterrupted) connection between the sender and recipient of data using a physical switching path. Once the direct connection is set-up, it is maintained for as long as the sender and receiver have data to exchange. The establishment of such a direct and dedicated switching path results in a fixed share of network resources being tied up until the connection is closed. When the physical connection between the sender and the receiver is no longer desired, it is torn-down and the network resources are allocated to other users as necessary.
Packet-based approaches, on the other hand, do not permanently assign transmission resources to a given call, and do not require the set-up and tear-down of physical connections between a sender and receiver of data. In general, a data flow in packet-based approaches is “packetized.” That is, the data is divided into separate segments of information, and each segment receives “header” information that may provide, for example, source information, destination information, information regarding the number of bits in the packet, priority information, and security information. The packets are then routed to a destination independently, based on the header information. The data flow may include a number of packets or a single packet. As the progression of wireless access technologies has continued, mobile devices have developed so that more than one access technology can be used to connect to a telecommunication network.